danaaliyalevinson's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
That is real skill.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal death, Dementia, Drug use, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, and Toxic relationship
hannalizzy's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a literary fiction masterpiece and in-depth character study. It’s the type of book that readers need to put some work into — you learn about the characters passively, by connecting the dots between their dialogue and their actions/behaviors. It’s a book worth annotating because so much is said between the lines.
Throughout the book you go from loving Cleo and Frank to hating them both, individually and as a couple. They’re messy, flawed, toxic people who bring out the worst in each other, and yet: “when the darkest part of you meets the darkest part of me, it creates light.”
It’s as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. It’s raw, it’s messy, it’s human. 5/5 stars⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Definitely adult content w/ triggering subjects. Check for content warnings ❤️🩹
Graphic: Alcoholism, Adult/minor relationship, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Alcohol, Cursing, Infidelity, Grief, Addiction, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Death of parent
ganderson's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Edit: after thinking more for a few months I'm bumping this down. I was in too much shock at the ending to address it at the time, but...
Spoiler
I think Quentin was incredibly hard done by as a character. The absolute shock transition into meth addiction blew my mind and completely shook me. I think that might be because I found this book through searching for LGBT books, and the book description particularly focuses on Quentin gender identity - for that to be a very, very minor story line and for Quentin's character to be given such a dark ending. I also felt similar about Frank's sister, who's story line of entering a sugar baby/daddy relationship didn't have fruition until the end of the novel despite being another central part of the book description. It felt misleading, and very much in Quentin's case like a 'bury your gays' trope that I've sat uncomfortably with for a while now. I really don't recommend this book on those themes at all.Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Eating disorder, Transphobia, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Infidelity, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Homophobia, and Self harm
serenarg's review
2.0
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Mental illness, Self harm, and Sexual content
Moderate: Body shaming, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Grief, Infidelity, Transphobia, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use
sash_bun's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Drug use, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Animal death and Dysphoria
impeachnixon's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
While I understand that this book was trying to tell many interconnected stories, I think there were just too many people with too serious of issues to really be done well. Quentin's meth use, for example, isn't really explored as well as it could be, and so I feel like it was weird that it was included at all. I'm not complaining about the end of his story, because I think it's interesting actually to just have Cleo say "I couldn't support him and so I ended that friendship". It just feels like Quentin's spiral into addiction to meth was a huge thing to happen off-screen, but also a necessary result of trying to tell 1,000 stories at once (and having all of those stories tackle very serious issues). Plus, why mention Quentin being possibly trans or genderqueer if you're never going to mention it again? It ends up simplifying a lot of serious issues, like Santiago's recovery from binge eating disorder really just coming down to "he's going to meetings and now he's losing weight", with the bulk of it being explored in a single chapter. This problem even extends to the titular couple, Cleo and Frank. Cleo's suicide attempt, for example, seemed a little brushed over, and it didn't help that we switched to the perspective of the caterer at her wedding after the attempt. It was a beautifully written book and it did have plenty of fleshed out, interesting characters, but it could use with some trimming and some more focus. What happened to Ander's 'son', for instance, or Zoe's financial situation? Is she being financially supported by Jiro, and, if so, what implications does that have for their relationship? And I'd be fine with a book not completely tying up every single loose end for every single side character except that there were chapters that interrupted the main story to ask me to care about all these side characters and then sometimes very little resolution.
Graphic: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Blood, Drug use, Addiction, Alcoholism, Injury/injury detail, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, and Infidelity
Moderate: Outing, Abandonment, Sexism, Transphobia, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia